I agree with a few of the comments from the anti-decimalization camp.
1) Yes it may make the learning curve for new / casual players a little steeper.
2) Yes I agree it will not help with SCs much, if any, but I would say that's an entirely different issue that could be solved with a minimum hit chance, capping resistances, a minimum fatigue of 1 a round that cannot be regained beyond that level a round no matter what (i.e. 30 fatigue on turn 30 is the minimum a unit can have), or many other reasonable approaches.
3) Also the unmentioned argument that is often forgotten with CPU speeds these days: floating point / decimal calculations are quite expensive compared to their integral counterparts. For older computers this may result in quite the performance hit... even the low graphics environment of Dominions should consider this when battles can take place with thousands of units (and thus require 100000+ floating point calculations)!
However that isn't to say decimal calculations do not have their merits. For example, standard morale for a unit is 10. Many players, however, consider a unit to have elite morale when they have merely 11 and further consider units with 9 morale are quite a bit worse than 10. The same is true for other stats. When dealing with small integers changing even by one step will result in large (in this case 10%) percentage change in overall ability, which often times is more than is desired. Allowing for smaller, more precise steps, would allow more variation amongst units, items, spells, etc.
In fact this problem has been seen in another TBS game - Age of Wonders. In AOW 1, the stats varied as integers between 1 - 10. One of the big complaints was this limited stat range issue. When trying to make an elite defender, for example, a single point increase in the defence is quite significant - a unit with 5 defence is too good but with 4 that unit is no better than the rest of his comrades.
So what was their solution? In Age of Wonders 2 they allowed the stats to vary between 1 - 20 and, in a large way, this problem was resolved. This solution also has the merits of not increasing the computation requirements by not switching to decimal calculations.
With all due respect to Frank Trollman, I would argue that if an increased precision in stats is desirable (and in many cases I would say it is, IMHO) that the solution is in fact to multiply all stats in the game by some number - the easiest being 10. I don't quite understand how this would hurt the game. Say for example, Dom2, was released without any changes save that all stats were multiplied by 10 (and the dice rolls scaled appropriately as well). The game would still be the same, the units still have the same effectiveness, weaknesses, abilities, strengths, etc. The stats would just have a 0 at the end. Therefore it would still be the same great game it is now and would require nothing new be learned... yet it would allow for higher precision changes for the modders should they wish to use it. If you want an increase in morale of 10% go ahead but if you want 5% now, well with this change that's possible too!
Maybe I'm missing something (its quite possible
) but at the moment I can't see the drawback save for having to consider larger numbers in my head when thinking about a unit
.
Anyway just my 2 cents.